This invention relates to an endovascular technique and more particularly to a method for repairing a diseased or weakened blood vessel. This invention also relates to an endoscopic diagnostic device which, in a modified form, can be used in a surgical procedure. The endoscopic device is useful specifically, although not exclusively, in endovascular investigations and operations. This invention additionally relates to a surgical tack or staple useful, for example, in endovascular operations.
Where a vein or artery with an aneurysm or other condition has been weakened to the extent that it is in danger of rupture, corrective surgery must be performed. Such surgery conventionally entails either a bypass or a replacement of the weakened or diseased segment. In one technique, the blood vessel is dissected and laid open in the region of the weakness. A tubular prosthesis is then connected to the opened lumens on opposite sides of the dissected section.
Endovascular diagnosis and surgical operations are made difficult by the blood flow through the subject vein or artery. Although optical angioscopic instruments have been used where a vein or artery is tied off, there is alway some leakage into the vascular organ which interferes with effective visualization. Ultrasonic equipment, although useful in presenting images of endovascular structures even in the presence of substantial blood flow, does not provide the detail or wealth of information available via optical monitoring. Accordingly, endovascular surgery has been limited by the difficulty of visually monitoring endovascular structures.